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Messages - AGC

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436
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 08, 2016, 05:37:01 am »
I don't know if this is way too much effort or if you've done it and it's buried somewhere in your journal(s), but I would love to see a summary graph of how your weight has fluctuated from the start of your training until now. You could also annotate whereabouts your local and life PRs for squats/jumps lie in relation to weight changes. Might be interesting.

437
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: Two Hands Two Feet
« on: February 05, 2016, 08:07:31 am »
Quote from: Coges on February 04, 2016, 10:44:13 pm
Feeling mildly depressed about my knee and slightly anxious ahead of my meeting with the sports doc next week. It's funny how much I associate being able to lift heavy weights with being me and being normal. Even though I can do everything else it's an odd place to be.  There's a certain level of limbo that I'm. My mind is refusing to accept new goals prior to receiving the final answer on where I stand. This is even though I have always craved more upper body size which was one of my new goals in light of where I am. I wonder whether or not that goal is particularly important to me or if it's a case of I can't leg stuff so all I want to do is leg stuff. I'm thinking it's most likely the latter.

Mind you I am well aware of how minor my situation is in the grand scheme of things and the fact that I will very likely return to full training in the somewhat near future even if I do require surgery.

It has been a good time to reflect though on what is important to me about training and performance in the future. I've come to a few conclusions that will heavily influence where I go from here training-wise. I'm not solving the world's problems here but it's nice to get some clarity every now and then.

I absolutely know the feeling you're describing and I think everyone here's a bit like that. If I couldn't train for athleticism for whatever reason I just can't imagine what would fill the gap. It's weird but nothing really gives me enjoyment the way training does. I often find my general mood is pretty much linked to how training is going - not sure if that's healthy or not!

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Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: February 01, 2016, 10:25:03 pm »
Anyway........after a couple of easy weeks just doing my own thing (which hasn't been much), I ran a handicapped 100m on the weekend. I was off 7.5m (92.5m) and ran a wind-adjusted 11.22sec. Might equate to about a ~12.1-12.2sec. Finally might be freshening up a bit.

I may run a couple more times this season, but I also think I probably should get some nagging issues under control. I might have a bit of bursitis around my achilles which flares up when I do a warmup lap. The achilles itself doesn't feel bad...there's just a sharp pain right around the tendon/calcaneal bone that feels similar to the type of pain I'd get with my foot (same foot) last year when I stood up after sitting for awhile. I think it's manageable like the foot was, but at the same time if I'm not running for anything I probably should just rest it.

439
Injury, Prehab, & Rehab talk for the brittlebros / Re: Low back pain
« on: February 01, 2016, 09:34:06 pm »
Do you have or can you buy a TENS/EMS machine? Anytime my lower back feels tight after the gym or from running I just use it at max settings before I go to bed for 30mins. Every time I've tried it I wake up the next morning and it's fine. They're only ~$100 or so on eBay for a good quality one with an AC charger, not a bad investment.

440
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: January 31, 2016, 06:09:06 pm »
Quote from: T0ddday on January 30, 2016, 02:49:33 pm

Quote
I just think sprinting in a straight line is fairly simple...the person with the best power/weight ratio with sufficient technique and body levers will win 99% of the time.

This is very far from the truth at the level your running.  I dont know what the standards are in Australia but if your on the pro circuit and people are running near 10.0 it has very little to do with power/weight ratios. 

That statement is very true for slower athletes, power to weight ratio is the main reason why one guy runs 13.0 and the other 12.0.  But it has essentially zero to do with why one guy runs 10.5 and the other 10.0.  Theres a litany of research proving this and my anecdotal experience backs it up. 

Additionally the straight line run actually makes your statement more false!  Power to weight ratios are going to be more important* in the 200m and 400m then the 100m!

*still not of primary importance at high levels, but if you wanted a race where power/weight is least important it would probably be the 150m straight...

Well I mean, yeah, that's exactly where I am unfortunately. I know that at the higher end it becomes a different game altogether. And I didn't say that power/weight becomes less important in the longer sprints. In fact, it becomes more important as you say. I was just talking about it in my context, apologies for the generalisation.

441
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: January 30, 2016, 07:11:57 am »
Quote from: LBSS on January 26, 2016, 01:27:10 pm
your journal,



welcome back, sorry to hear you had what sounds like kind of a lost season.

Thanks mate! I have been following your training lately and it looks like you're hitting new heights, keep it up.  :lololol:

Quote from: Mutumbo000 on January 28, 2016, 06:16:33 am
That sucks man. If it's any consolation you're faster than me atm, and I have one friend (10.94 100 & 21.69 200) who hasn't improved since he was 17- he's now 22 and he's been training with a coach similar to yours the whole time.

You definitely need to ditch that coach. 3.2km runs on Sundays and 2.4km runs on Wednesdays??? As for the speed endurance I"m not surprised that people would drop off by the 2nd set. Speed endurance is usually 90-95% so if you're exerting that kind of effort you really need to have about 15-20 minutes rest at least- 6-8 minutes is just ridiculous.

The Tuesday session sounds decent, as does the speed endurance; however, like I said you'd definitely want to incorporate more rest if it's true speed endurance. Same as the sled drags once again it just seems like a complete overkill on volume. Than to top it off he has you guys running a 400m to finish off the session :o

How did the rest of the squad go? Juniors might be able to handle that sort of volume and make improvements- but that wouldn't be due to good coaching it would be due to going through puberty. The reason you didn't get injured was probably because your body knew it couldn't handle the volume so instead of ceasing the volume it lowered the intensity as a natural defence mechanism. Hence, your times deteriorating and lack of power.

It seems clear where all the mistakes were this season. Sometimes less is more, which sounds completely counter intuitive (it's probably different if you're juiced to the grills or have built up the volume over many years though) but it all depends on what your body responds to. The high volume approach doesn't work for you, and I don't think it would work for most people either. Anyway I wouldn't dwell on it bro it's just an unfortunate learning experience.

Thanks mate, the squat has dropped in numbers over the last year so it's hard to make many conclusions but one thing I've noticed is that the girls tend to do better, and historically females have been more successful with this coach. Weird, but again small sample size. There's only been a couple of other guys training and they are flaky at best.

I feel that I generally have escaped acute injuries because I have stayed on top of doing soft tissue work/voodoo banding/stretching every night and eat and sleep fine. Knock on wood as today my insertional achilles tendon is flaring up. But I haven't actually been 'hurt' since I did my foot nearly 2 years ago, maybe what you described is at play, hard to say.

Quote from: T0ddday on January 28, 2016, 10:10:25 am
Acole - glad to see you back.  Thanks for the mention - what are you current goals and are you not gonna run with a team anymore?  Also, what are those handicapped runs?  I know there is one on grass thats like 120yds that Josh Ross won a few times where they handicap each person differently - pretty cool that they have them in Australia - is this a common thing?

Thanks mate, really cool to see you back dropping knowledge bombs everywhere again. Goals-wise I don't know. Since that last post I've joined the gym down the road and have just gone back to doing a few 'easy' sessions based on what I used to do. I still like the social aspect of being in a running squad, and I'll still compete in both the amateur and pro seasons again next year. But I'm definitely gonna do the off-season a little differently because physically and work-wise it's just hard to train 3-4 days during the week at 5PM over the meaty part of the year (March-Oct) and then lose half the weekend training as well. Especially if it's for a negative result.

Part of me just wants to drop running and just go back to the good old days: squat, do athletic exercises and try to dunk from SVJ at the gym court. That'd be pretty fun. I might do that from April to say August, then start getting ready to run from August-ish to November. Not really sure. Even though obviously big weight room numbers aren't the sole indicator of short sprint (60m-100m) times, I feel that for me with my shorter legs/body ratio, being strong in the squat/power clean is much more important for me than your average sprinter. It's just a shame the gym work this year has been mediocre. I think I just need to  get the (explosive) strength levels back up again. I like this exchange from Rocky VI:

To beat this guy, you need speed.
You don't have it.
And your knees can't take the
pounding, so hard running is out.
And you got arthritis in your neck.
And you've got calcium deposits...
...on most of your joints,
so sparring is out.
I had that problem.
So what we'll be calling on is good
old-fashioned blunt-force trauma.
Horsepower. Heavy-duty,
cast-iron, pile-driving punches...
...that will have to hurt so much
they'll rattle his ancestors.
Every time you hit him with a shot...
...it's gotta feel like he tried kissing
the express train.
Yeah! Let's start building
some hurting bombs.

A bit out of context but I like the idea behind it. I'm not arthritic yet but I don't know how much more 'fit' I need to be as a short sprinter than what I achieved before the season and am still 90-95% of right now. I can complete any speed endurance session without giving up and run laps on laps. I will do it until I drop if that's the program and it works, but you have to be smart enough to adapt in the face of bad results. I just think sprinting in a straight line is fairly simple...the person with the best power/weight ratio with sufficient technique and body levers will win 99% of the time.

Still thinking about it though. There's a myotherapist/athletic trainer who used to train with us and is a boss (6'6'', 100kgs, sub-22 200m) and he has some really good ideas and approaches, and is big on developing explosive strength. Might train a bit more with him maybe. Given I will never be a 200m+ guy and am solely focusing on short sprints and power (i.e. vertical jump, broad jump, horizontal jumps), in terms of emphasis I think it should be something like [speed>strength>anaerobic endurance>>aerobic endurance]. Interested to hear yours and Mutumbo's thoughts being the other two sprint guys on the forum! And anyone else's of course. I can give more details if needed.

Yeah, handicap running has a big history here in Victoria (my state). The race you're talking about is the Stawell Gift, the major event of this otherwise nondescript town called Stawell in rural Vic. The main race is 120m actually, and Josh Ross won it off a ridiculous 7m mark the first time and then off scratch (0m) mark a couple of years later. But there are heaps of other races before that and also in other states, and there are some big guns who race. Here's the site:

www.val.org.au

Theoretically 'everyone has a chance of winning' but it's kind of BS, the coach has told me some ridiculous stories about how corrupt it's been in terms of certain athletes from certain clubs/stables getting generous marks, shady stuff. But it is fun and it's miles better than the woeful amateur comp we have here.

442
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: January 26, 2016, 08:52:14 am »
Been meaning to write an update for ages. I have been reading everyone's training and it's great to see most people smashing it, but also hard because my season has been a complete disaster!

Around the time of the last post my testing results started going bad. Went from 247m to 240m in the last 30 seconds test, jumps weren’t very good etc. I did get ‘fitter’ running a 4min 1200m and 13min 3km run – but who cares about that and it sucks anyway. Also lost 20kgs on my bench and about the same on squat once we moved to back squats, probably due to not getting into the gym for 6 months!

September/Oct training:

   Sun: a 3.2km run around a park before heavy power pulls, squats with hurdle jumps and bench. Yep.

   Tues: block starts, multiple re-accelerations, 300m sprint. Not a bad session by itself.

   Wed: same as Sun but with a 2400m run instead, so not much different. By this time last year we had dropped the long runs but the coach was experimenting. He’s sort of lost a bit of enthusiasm this season as a lot of people left and it was really just me and a few other girls training consistently.

   Thurs: Speed endurance. Each month we do a session on three consecutive Thursdays. The first month was [120m, 150m, 180m] x 3 with 6-8 minutes rest. Most people dropped out of this one by set two. The next month was [120m, 150m, 180m] x 3 with same rest. By this stage in the week I was fucked and not running very good times.

   Sat: sled drags - 6 sets of [2x40m] with gun, then 400m.
 
First run was in late Oct, 200m running a 25.17sec…which is not terrible but not anything close to what I was hoping. And in context, completely shit and not competitive in any sense. 100m in mid-November…12.92 (!!!)…I eased off a bit at the end because I could tell it was a pathetic run and just gave up. Start has gotten worse due to lack of power, got beat off the line and just died as usual from 60m to the line. I was pretty furious as I ran a 12.52 off one easy session a week for 3 months two years ago, and I thought that was bad at the time! Next run I ran all the way hard and had a bit of a tail. But I still only ran a measly 12.72. WTF. It’s like I hadn’t been training at all! Incredibly frustrating.

The pro (handicapped) runs haven’t been much better, not running near my best times obviously. It also seems like because they know I’ve run faster, the chance of me getting any handicap boost is miniscule. So that’s another waste of time really.  Finally in the last month or so I’ve been given a reprieve and am doing wimp weights and lightening the load a bit with track work. My latest 100m was 12.58sec with +1.4m/s, so there has been very slight improvement, but given last year I ran 12.01 at the same race with a cold, I’ve gone backwards majorly.

In hindsight I definitely hit an overtraining phase. I was running well in June/July but then the wheels fell off. Was doing every session consistently but it just became too much to recover from. I remember being fairly tired each training and demotivated, especially when the shit results started pouring in. I haven’t agreed with how the coach has been training everyone this season at all. Too much time committed to long runs and fitness circuits at the expense of speed and strength. Part of it was we got into the gym a month later and the season started earlier. So I just got weaker and have fallen into a ditch speed-wise. I should have just done my own gym from the start. I had planned to do it but because I’m incredibly stubborn and won’t quit things I decided to just do the training as written until the end of the season before making any decisions.

Injury-wise…I really haven’t had anything major. I had a bit of patellofemoral pain in my R knee for s bit which affected my SL bounds. My L Achilles also has been sore, but only for about 5 mins during warmups. It’s probably low-grade Achilles tendinopathy but again, nothing that has stopped me. We never do any calf strengthening, which probably has something to do with it.

Anyway I hope this isn’t an incredibly depressing post but that’s how it’s been. Just feel like a complete hack…very demoralising given that I felt I could (and should have) run well this season. The coach has been open to change but I also feel he doesn’t really care that much – he’s getting older and his heart isn’t always in it. He hasn’t been charging me which is nice, but I don’t care about getting free training if it’s not worth the time/effort. It’s just caused me a ton of anxiety that I really don’t need!

I think from here I’ll do my own gym, start building my squat and bench back up and just run the track sessions…maybe. Nothing much to run for the rest of the season, won’t be entering state champs. I’d still like to do another season despite all of that but on my own terms, definitely will do my own off-season. I’ve learnt enough and definitely have become more knowledgeable, if not any better of an athlete. Plus now Toddday is posting again I might be able to get some input on my training plans  :D

443
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: October 30, 2015, 02:35:42 am »
Quote from: Mutumbo000 on October 26, 2015, 02:28:52 am
Are you mainly going to run pros this season or a mixture of pros and amateur?
How's your training coming along now? Same old or is it different now that it's almost race time.

Good to see you back man! Yeah I will do a bit of both again. Ill do a bigger update when I get a chance but yeah it hasn't changed drastically.

444
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: Age vs Vertical
« on: September 30, 2015, 11:35:46 pm »
Vag what do you reckon for VC here, Age vs Vertical-wise? He's 38, didn't say what he jumped though.


445
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: August 30, 2015, 10:54:57 pm »
Quote from: LBSS on August 29, 2015, 12:15:14 pm
A++ strong update. get back to journaling, i'm tryna see you hit 11.5.

Thanks man, I have been feeling very guilty about not journalling, just been busy with the actual training on top of everything else. But I have been following everyone's training and commenting when I can.

Yeah 11.5 would be nice...everything would have to go right but it's not completely crazy. My real weakness last year (and the year before) was speed endurance. I think that has gotten better this off-season through being able to train in a healthy state more consistently. Last winter I had shin splints for the first bit and a bit of residual plantar fasciitis, so even though I was training at the same volume as now, I probably wasn't getting the same training effect because the intensity couldn't be as high as possible. Being healthy is underrated lol.

446
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: August 29, 2015, 09:14:39 am »
MEGA UPDATE!

No I haven't been falsely accused of murder, still alive, still running and jumping. Pretty much doing the same training as last winter, but no basketball court session, and the club hasn't been able to get into the gym due to various financial issues - but we only got delayed a month or so.

May - Two track, one hills session and one fitness circuit/long run (1200m) day

June - Two track, one sleds session and two fitness circuit/longer run (1600m) session

July - Two track, one sleds session and two fitness circuit/longer run (2000m) session

August - Two track, one hills session, one fitness circuit/longer run (2400m) and one gym session

September - Two track, one hills session, one or two gym (not sure), pool session

(Probably made >90% of sessions).

Testing results of note

30sec run - 247m (big improvement on last years 236 or something) --> a 250m/30sec is ~23.5sec 200m (approx because some people die faster over the last 50m than others).

60sec run (only done it once) - 415m

Broad jump - a shitty 2.80m with no pop (I blame this on lack of gym/squatting!)

LRLRLRLRLR bounding - PRed, but can't remember what and can't be bothered looking it up, something like 28m --> probably lighter BW has helped

1200m run - 4m11s - PR (I think)

Pullups and ring chinups - both 23

It has mostly been pretty cold and wet and uninteresting! Which is why I haven't journalled much. But I have gotten fitter I guess. My power has probably dipped a bit because I have slowly dropped down to about 75-76kgs from ~78-79 at season's end. Mostly UB mass, hams/glutes/calves are still there but may have just lost a bit of quad muscle/power. My best broad jump was when I was squatting a lot, quad-dominant AF and was around ~81kgs. It's been pretty easy to just cut out some carbs here and there in lunch and dinner and eat most cals just before bed. Seems to work, but then I've always had good genes for BF% so who knows. Some stupid $1500+ digital bf% scales in the Uni gym measured me at 3.8%! But I'm not that low (probably around 5%). I think this has helped me stay mostly injury-free all winter to date (jinx alert). The previous issues I've had (foot, shin splints) have gone. Right tib-fib joint still flares up a bit ---> I'm sure a lot of people would get this and it's probably differences in ankle mobility (R is less mobile than L)......but it's never quite severe enough for me to do much about it.

My thinking is to continue with the training all the way through to the end of summer (~end of March) this season and then re-evaluate. If I'm making minimal progress then I'm gonna go back to solo training and do my own thing. As much as I've enjoyed the group training thing and have learnt a lot, starting to tire of the inflexibility and being (in the nicest way possible) bossed around by adults like freaking high school. Also, rigid training times make doing a science PhD a bitch sometimes. The thing that could swing this is the professional running for $$. If I win $$ this season I might stick with it longer. But if not, I can't be bothered throwing entry fees away for whole seasons to improve my handicap (which is all politics/who-you-know bullshit). CBFed with that shit. Must be getting older!

Based on testing and timed hill sprints, good goals are probably 11.6sec (again lol), <24sec for 200m. Last season I felt I probably peaked in January. I don't know if I handled the volume well despite not really getting 'hurt'. Possibly overtrained. For better or worse, the coach is hardcore old-school so I will try and monitor it myself better and not feel compelled to kill myself every day. But if that happens again or I'm hitting 12.0-11.9 again with no massive improvement in RVJ then I think it's time to move on, join a crossfit gym (I know, but they're the best gyms here) that I can do OLs in/bits and pieces of sprint training and try to dunk on or before March 2017 or commit athletic harakiri.

447
Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Re: windmill specific upperbody plyos
« on: August 13, 2015, 11:20:45 pm »
Here's a good bit on the med ball partner throws@04:16:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idCcXNOYih8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idCcXNOYih8</a>


448
Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Re: windmill specific upperbody plyos
« on: August 13, 2015, 10:51:04 pm »
Buy a medicine ball and do fast wall bounces, back and forth with a partner with increasing distance, medicine ball alternating one-arm pushups. I haven't read your journal recently but are you benching atm?

449
Article & Video Discussion / Re: flying 101 in 2008 and barely can walk in 2014....
« on: July 24, 2015, 07:08:15 pm »
Definitely. There's at least a slight element of fear-mongering, it's like a public safety announcement that any healthy guy under 30 could suddenly get symptoms of spinal injury out of nowhere. It's a bit disingenuous to not to mention he was a powerlifter or whatever he did and probably did other stupid shit like the rim-hang 55'' depth drops.

450
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: July 20, 2015, 01:13:41 am »
Quote from: LBSS on July 19, 2015, 11:32:24 am
- hard run x 10 mins
was thinking about what acole said about 8 minute 95RPE runs. i structured my morning (and my friday night) around being able to go to the gym at 11 and it was occupied by gay dodgeball, which was frustrating. so i took it out on myself by running very hard for ten minutes. RPE was not 95, maybe like 85, in part because of red lights. 95RPE you really need a track.

Agreed, you need a closed circuit to do them properly. If you can do them though they really work, my cardio fitness noticeably improves within a few weeks. They just really suck!

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